But at the Quaker State 400, the winners and losers were, for the most part, pretty clear Saturday night at Kentucky Speedway.

Winners

Brad Keselowski — Winner of the race. Led 199 laps. Got to drink beer and spray champagne in Victory Lane — although he cut his hand when he broke the champagne bottle and needed four stitches. Hey, no pain, no gain.

Kyle Busch — He finished second, and considering where Joe Gibbs Racing has been the past few intermediate races, this is a fine finish. He actually answered questions with a few sentences instead of a few words afterward, a sign that he was at least a little happy.

Ryan Newman — Newman had his best finish of the season. His third-place finish showed signs that his team is starting to gel into a cohesive unit and Richard Childress Racing is making gains as well.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. — He leads the series with nine top-fives, so what’s the big deal about this fifth-place finish? It’s because he started 29th and the team was out to lunch just a day earlier in qualifying.

Michael Annett — The one "winner" who didn’t finish in the top-five, Annett was 18th. For Tommy Baldwin Racing and Annett to finish top-20 on an intermediate track is a big accomplishment for this small team.

Losers

Denny Hamlin — He finished 42nd. The only reason he wasn’t 43rd was because only 42 cars showed up to race. A flat tire on lap 28 ended his day with a hard hit.

Kyle Larson— Like Hamlin, he fell victim to an early flat. He finished 40th, his worst this season.

Aric Almirola — Was running in the top-10 when he tried to avoid a spinning Alex Bowman and ran into Jamie McMurray. He later wrecked again and finished 39th.

Jamie McMurray — Another innocent victim as part of the Bowman spin, it was just added insult to injury that Bowman completed five more laps than the 37th-place McMurray to finish a spot ahead of him.

Brian Vickers— A team that thought it might be knocking on the door for a win finished 26th, the last car one lap down. Neither Vickers nor teammate Clint Bowyer (23rd) were a factor Saturday night.